Question of Morals 9/27/2001
Dear Readers,
I'm terrified. There's talk of re-instating the draft. There is no question of if we go to war; we are going to war. it's simply a question of when. This is not going to be a short war either; CNN, the politicians, and basically everyone involved have hinted at, if they have not already plainly stated, that when the war starts, it will last a few years.
The World Trade Center bombings were terrible and I was obviously upset about them, but they didn't affect me directly. My father was safely tucked away in his store, my sister was in Binghamton (almost no-one knows Binghamton even exists, so she's probably the safest out of everyone), and the rest of my family was home. My worry, to put it mildly, is that if the draft is re-instated, my sixteen year old brother will be in the middle of it. I believe you used to be able to get a deferrment if you were college-bound, but in a few years, who knows? They may just start calling everybody, regardless if you're college-bound or not. Many will say I'm unpatriotic, and possibly downright selfish and wrong, but I don't want my brother to go to war. My first priority is him, not my country. Maybe my morals are screwed up, but this is how I feel.
My mother, who's the calmest person in a crisis that I can think of, has already made plans to send my brother John to Canada, if and when the time comes. He'd go to college in McGill and she'd somehow make him a Canadian citizen.
Many people, including former President Clinton and President Bush, were both draft dodgers. Bushs's family used their influence to land George one of the safest posts possible, and Clinton just outright refused to go. Thousands of Americans fled to Canada during the Vietname war and were considered traitors. However, after the war, the majority of the draft-dodgers were still alive while the boys who went to war mostly came back crippled or not at all. The average life-span for an American soldier in Vietnam was sixteen minutes. Of course, we're only finding this out now. I'm not saying that the people who volunteer to fight wars are wrong; far from it. I admire them for their beliefs. I too have my beliefs, and not having my brother killed in some far off is probably nearing the top of that list.
I won't apologize for my seemingly unpatriotic beliefs, because my love for my brother is something I hold above everything else; even my own freedoms as an American. I would rather live in a police-state like Israel than have my brother go to war. That's a belief that won't be changed no matter how much I get bashed for my views.
My greatest fear is that we won't be able to get John out of the country out in time, like what happened to the Jews trapped in Nazi-controlled countrie during the 1930's and 40's. The fact that we even have a plan to smuggle my own brother out of the country scares the hell out of me. War scares me. I think that by bombing the World Trade Centers, even Bin Ladin didn't realize the enormity of the Pandora's box that has now opened. I hope to everything sacred that this ends quickly, or at the very least, by the time John becomes eighteen. May
God, gods, or whatever you believe in, bless your families.
Artist
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